Cyberattack Worries Mar ‘Safest Decade’ in US Air Travel: Congressman

Amid talk of the “safest decade” for American air travel, a Wisconsin congressman scorched the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for shortcomings in its computer security.
Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) said his staff ferreted out facts about the system’s vulnerability while probing the Jan. 11 FAA computer outage that grounded flights nationwide, causing 11,000 flight disruptions.
Security of the FAA systems “affects every single human being on the planet that flies in aircraft,” Van Orden said during a Feb. 7 House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing about the FAA’s future funding and operations.
Van Orden declared: “the FAA left our entire nation’s air industry in peril” by failing to properly shield the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system. That system warns pilots about closed runways and other “abnormal” conditions affecting air travel….}